More and more people each year are discovering how Triking is a fun, easy, emission-free way to keep fit. TerraTrikes offer a great view of the scenery and an immediate relief from the aches and pains of traditional bicycles.

They are great at replacing your car on short trips while laughing at gas prices. They are well respected in traffic due to their curious shape, and they are easy to transport on traditional bike racks or on a TerraTrike specific hitch rack. TerraTrikes have a comfort level and a cool factor that cannot be denied. Treat yourself to a test ride today, and be part of the solution.

Delivery thursday

FedEx has a 80 lb package and pallet to be delivered some time thursday. My bare bones x8 Rover. Spent the last 2 months buying upgrade and old school components. Trike customization will be my winter project. If I can figure out how to post pictures I will document the transformation.

Welcome to the group! Almost all of us have done some customization. But, I won't have time for it this winter. I hope to be riding all year long.

Rub it in.....
44F this morning in Pa, probably frost Friday morning. Riding season is over. Time to clean out the flower beds, garden etc. We are having an extended season here. Still have patio pots blooming which almost never last till Halloween.

I forgot how small trikes are. I am used to my ex LWB Easy Racer which was 5 feet long and 4 feet high with the high handlebars. I noticed the right brake lever pull felt good, short pull. The left lever has a lot longer pull. My lumbar pad should fit fine, the inflatable seat pad will probably end up on top of the seat instead of between the seat fabric and the seat webbing. My carrier box which was a handlebar bag will go on no problem. Going to read the manual, take some pictures and start the mods friday.

Good news, double crank went on no problem. Bad news, Shimano bar con shifters do NOT fit in the handlebars even tho TT said they would when I asked 2 months ago. Bars are 22.2mm od, bar cons fit 26mm od bars. Good news, Paul Components makes adapters that mount the barcon guts onto a thumb shifter clamp. Ordered a set. Bad news , $85.
Good news, I like thumb shifters better than barcons. Since there are no Shimano 8speed thumbshifters this works out for the best. Good news, the now open left handlebar can accept a Mirrycycle mirror.

Put Big Apple tires on trike this morning. Plus Schwab av7 tubes with the metal shader valves. Took brake levers off and put Avid Speed dial 7s on. I will be putting on TRP Spyke calipers and rotors. The derailleur tube from Power on Cycling had to be modified. The tube is designed to work with Mt bike derailleurs, I am using a Suntour Cyclone road model. I noticed that the tube did not intersect the centerline of the bottom bracket shell, and in fact was about 3/8" too far back. Made the slot longer, lined up the tube and tightened it down. Now have a consistent 2mm spacing between the 52 tooth chaining and the derailleur curve. That made me very happy.
Next will be adding the seat pad and lumbar pad.

So far so good. Made and installed a combo seat clamp and return chain idler . My Clamp has double duty, defines location of seat clamp plus prevents seat clamp creep. Was going to install the chain today when I discovered the icky chain lube. Into solvent the chain went and now nice and clean. Was going to do the hot paraffin dunk but went into my gun cleaning supplies and used that instead. It cleans, lubes and protects all in one step. Will see how well it holds up on the chain but at least the chain no longer has the crud lube on it.
And in the tire arena when I replaced the base tires with Big Apples I noticed right away the rubber rim tapes. That do not lay right in the rims. Covers the nipples yes, but barely. So those items get replaced with Velox rim tape.
Seat pad was installed, lumbar pad installed. Good, good.
So waiting on some brake and shifter parts. Have other projects calling like cleaning up the garden, flower beds, Xmas presents that need finishing etc etc.
More to come.

Well the trike is done. Still need to fine tune the rear derailleur and check the front end alignment. Hoping to do a quick ride in the neighborhood later this week, once it warms up to 50f or so. Will take better pictures when outside, flash pictures in the cellar are too harsh, the reflective fabric strips ruin the pics.
Short version of changes, Suntour double crank, 52-40 chainrings. Suntour Cyclone front derailleur. Reused some overhauled Shimano Look pedals. Rear derailleur now Shimano Deore. Rollamajig cable router on derailleur. All cable housings now Jagwire. All cables routed thru brake noodles off of hand controls. Brakes TRP Spykes with Kool stop pads. Chain degreased and treated with Prolix gun treatment. Return chain bare, goes over TerraCycle return idler. Drive side now runs thru shorter chain tube which is clamped to the seat frame. The chain tube can now very easily flex and cover the rear sprockets. All wheels have Velox rim tape, replaced rubber rim strips. All metal valve stem Schwalbe innertubes, tires are Big Apples. Seat bag was a handlebar bag which now hangs via webbing wrapped around the seat frame. Avid Speed Dial brake levers. Gear shifters are the guts of some Shimano 8 speed barcons attached to some Paul Components Thumbies. Plus the handmade lumbar pad and the inflatable Thermarest seat pad. Etc. Etc. That should do it for the trike. I pretty much changed out everything except for the frame, seat and wheelset.
Still have to rebuild the rear wheel on my wife''s recumbent. Going from 451mm wheel to 406mm fat tire wheel and Big Apple tires. Have the parts, just need the time to plow thru it.

First ride, 42f, wore walking boots, leather gloves, hoodie. Rode 1.5 miles around neighborhood. Great being back on a recumbent after crashing my Easy Racer in July. The "engine" did ok. Plusses: gearing felt right on, 40 tooth small chainring small enough, 52 tooth chainring will be more than big enough. Deore rear derailleur is a sweet shifter. Thumb shifters worked well just like thumb shifters. Brakes were strong. Stronger than drum brakes but not by much. Still would rather have them instead of discs.
Negatives: very twitchy steering. Not a fan of direct steering but will get used to it and adapt to it. The trike I built had indirect steering and was slower and forgiving. Too bad TT does not offer the indirect steering that the old models used to have. Seat cushion needs a layer of foam along with the air pad. And I had to loosen some seat back straps to allow sitting in the seat rather than on the seat. Felt more connected after the seat adjustment.
So the trike is a winner. Trike is back in the cellar, back on the windtrainer. Have to make my minor tweeks and wait for springtime.

I was considering tygon tubing on the tierod. I wrapped a special thick tape around it instead. The tape is used by the aviation folks on the leading edge of the wings to minimize abrasive damage. Bought a roll of it from Dillsburg Aeroplane Works years ago when I was buying 4130 steel tubing for my recumbent projects.
I checked the alignment 2 days ago. It appears to have no toe in. Maybe 1 or 2 mm toe in would be a good thing?

Made a trammel with 2 wooden dowels, wire ties. Now have 1 to 2 mm toe in. Found one jamb nut was loose. Had to remove one tie rod when I did the brake caliper changeover but it should not have loosened the jam nut. Will check my work again later. Need to get started on 2 wheeled recumbent rear wheel rebuild.

I have 1 more tweek
I am going to try on the intruding brake cables. I installed brake noodles on the brakes but it did not significantly increase the space between the cables and ones thighs. This interaction between the operator and brake cables appears to be a concern for plenty of riders. I am going to try replacing the brake noodles with Travel Agent devices. I will use it as a pulley only, not using the increased cable pull option. Bought one on ebay to play with. Here is a description.https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/travel-agent-installation-and-adjustment

Wide handlebars help. I solved the problem by first buying the wide handlebars then combining them with the stock handlebars and changing the orientation of the handle. The wide are on bottom and the stock are on top. I wish I had made them shorter but this option is better than the other two offered by TT.